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**For those of you who are planning to critique everything I have to say and repost 'quoting' my questions without a nice or useful reply, please do not bother and waste my time. Thank you!!

Quickly, here's the deal: My husband and I are in our late 20's, expecting our 1st baby this summer, he is a carpenter, I am a preschool teacher.. we love the outdoors, weekend road trips, things like that. Do not need to live in walking distance to EVERYTHING, but would like a few things nearby so I can go out with the baby without the car. Currently pay $680 + for a huge 2 bedroom/2 bath apt. with a lake and wooded view in North ATL, would want to pay similar price for something as close to that as possible if we were to move (I know that may not be possible, and we are flexible, but any neighborhood recommendations appreciated).
Looking for a change b/c:
1) Skilled Trade: ATL is AWESOME, but the carpentry field seems to be better in Austin (I know no where is perfect at the moment, but it does seem better), is this true?
2) Weather: The humidity here is brutal, I have heard although Austin is very hot, but the heat is different..is this true?
3) Activities: We love outdoor concerts and festivals, and heard Austin is the place to be for a simple day out listening to live music..is this true? We also like to option of just going on a picnic and jumping in a local river/lake.. is that pretty popular there to do?
4) Crime: we live in a pretty safe neighborhood, but still every once in a while a local teenager will break into someone's apt. or car.. and that is in the suburbs.. Where I am from on LI, NY, we never had to lock our cars, and felt safe leaving the front door unlocked, too.. we are looking for a neighborhood like that.. anything you can suggest in Austin?
5) Diversity: We love Thai, Indian food, and not a lot of mediocre hamburger places & fast food.. would you say there's a lot of culturally diverse places around? Also, as much as we love spanish culture, we do not neccesarily like everything around us written in spanish..would you say that is the case being so close to Mexico?

***Thanks so very much for any help you can provide We are checking it out for ourselves, but I wanted to gather as much info as possible before hand.

**For those of you who are planning to critique everything I have to say and repost 'quoting' my questions without a nice or useful reply, please do not bother and waste my time. Thank you!!

Quickly, here's the deal: My husband and I are in our late 20's, expecting our 1st baby this summer, he is a carpenter, I am a preschool teacher.. we love the outdoors, weekend road trips, things like that. Do not need to live in walking distance to EVERYTHING, but would like a few things nearby so I can go out with the baby without the car. Currently pay $680 + for a huge 2 bedroom/2 bath apt. with a lake and wooded view in North ATL, would want to pay similar price for something as close to that as possible if we were to move (I know that may not be possible, and we are flexible, but any neighborhood recommendations appreciated).
Looking for a change b/c:
1) Skilled Trade: ATL is AWESOME, but the carpentry field seems to be better in Austin (I know no where is perfect at the moment, but it does seem better), is this true?
2) Weather: The humidity here is brutal, I have heard although Austin is very hot, but the heat is different..is this true?
3) Activities: We love outdoor concerts and festivals, and heard Austin is the place to be for a simple day out listening to live music..is this true? We also like to option of just going on a picnic and jumping in a local river/lake.. is that pretty popular there to do?
4) Crime: we live in a pretty safe neighborhood, but still every once in a while a local teenager will break into someone's apt. or car.. and that is in the suburbs.. Where I am from on LI, NY, we never had to lock our cars, and felt safe leaving the front door unlocked, too.. we are looking for a neighborhood like that.. anything you can suggest in Austin?
5) Diversity: We love Thai, Indian food, and not a lot of mediocre hamburger places & fast food.. would you say there's a lot of culturally diverse places around? Also, as much as we love spanish culture, we do not neccesarily like everything around us written in spanish..would you say that is the case being so close to Mexico?

***Thanks so very much for any help you can provide We are checking it out for ourselves, but I wanted to gather as much info as possible before hand.

0) tough to find a 2 br 2ba in a decent area for $680, not possible to find one on the water. Houses are a better deal to rent right now ,but still not on any water. The three main bodies are lake travis, lake austin and ladybird lake and they are all premium properties

1)dont know, but you will be competing with illegal immigrants so wages may be lower
2) it is pretty dry here, much less humid than atlanta
3) We have some, but it isnt like they are happening all the time. On weekends there is always some place and there are a lot of restaurants that will have outdoor live music. You can have a picnic by a river/lake and then jump in. We also have tubing.
4) very safe in most areas
5) lot's of food choices, ethnic food isnt world class but still very good. Very little if anything is written in spanish. We arent that close to mexico.

Been in Austin a little over a year and lived in ATL for many years. Austin is far superior to ATL hands-down. It's a great place to raise kids and that's why we moved here.

I'm not sure why you think the carpentry field is better here -- seemed pretty strong in intown ATL. Guess if you're in Dunwoody or Alpharetta, it's a different market. The old bungalows in Grant Park and EAV ALWAYS need work!!?

Heat here is dry. This past summer did have some brutal triple digit weather but didn't phase us much. I never get sweaty and gross like I did in GA. Then again it's so hot here, maybe I don't spend as much time outside in July and August.

I do miss dining in ATL. I have not found a lot of diversity in the places local to my neighborhood. The few places I've made a special effort to go to haven't been anything to rave about. I've had decent Indian food, so-so Vietnamese and crappy Thai. BUT you have breakfast tacos here and they're super yummy. Also I have to say that I don't get to dine out much so maybe there are ethnic places but I haven't had the chance to discover them...

Thanks for getting back to me, everyone. I was asking about things in spanish b/c around here if you go through certain neighborhoods EVERYTHING is in spanish, from banks to fast food places to supermarkets..and obviously TX is much closer to Mexico than GA. Anyway, thank you again

I can't speak for the whole carpentry trade in Austin, but I can say that my brother in law, who is a finish carpenter, and well known in his area, has had a rough year and a half - not much work. Before assuming that there are more opportunities in carpentry in Austin, I would check it out with people who really do know about the trade in general, and how it is doing here.

**For those of you who are planning to critique everything I have to say and repost 'quoting' my questions without a nice or useful reply, please do not bother and waste my time. Thank you!!

Quickly, here's the deal: My husband and I are in our late 20's, expecting our 1st baby this summer, he is a carpenter, I am a preschool teacher.. we love the outdoors, weekend road trips, things like that. Do not need to live in walking distance to EVERYTHING, but would like a few things nearby so I can go out with the baby without the car. Currently pay $680 + for a huge 2 bedroom/2 bath apt. with a lake and wooded view in North ATL, would want to pay similar price for something as close to that as possible if we were to move (I know that may not be possible, and we are flexible, but any neighborhood recommendations appreciated).
Looking for a change b/c:
1) Skilled Trade: ATL is AWESOME, but the carpentry field seems to be better in Austin (I know no where is perfect at the moment, but it does seem better), is this true?
2) Weather: The humidity here is brutal, I have heard although Austin is very hot, but the heat is different..is this true?
3) Activities: We love outdoor concerts and festivals, and heard Austin is the place to be for a simple day out listening to live music..is this true? We also like to option of just going on a picnic and jumping in a local river/lake.. is that pretty popular there to do?
4) Crime: we live in a pretty safe neighborhood, but still every once in a while a local teenager will break into someone's apt. or car.. and that is in the suburbs.. Where I am from on LI, NY, we never had to lock our cars, and felt safe leaving the front door unlocked, too.. we are looking for a neighborhood like that.. anything you can suggest in Austin?
5) Diversity: We love Thai, Indian food, and not a lot of mediocre hamburger places & fast food.. would you say there's a lot of culturally diverse places around? Also, as much as we love spanish culture, we do not neccesarily like everything around us written in spanish..would you say that is the case being so close to Mexico?

***Thanks so very much for any help you can provide We are checking it out for ourselves, but I wanted to gather as much info as possible before hand.

I have two suggestions for you. First, make a trip to Austin and find out where there is some homebuilding going on and go out and talk to the crews and find out about the job situation. The framing/carpentry trades in Texas are dominated by Hispanics which is either good or bad for you depending on your individual situation. You can also check it out and see if you like the restaurants, people, etc. If you are serious about moving to an unfamiliar place, you have to spend the money and visit it. There is no substitute for looking at a place yourself.

Second, simply peruse Craigslist online to find out what rentals are going for in Austin. No need to ask on this board, you can find out for yourself by using what most people in Austin will use.

Good Luck.

Last edited by ElectroPlumber; 01-18-2010 at 07:48 PM..

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